Powell wants inquiry into Khartoum's 'genocide'

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US Secretary of State Colin
Powell called atrocities in
Sudan's troubled Darfur region
"genocide" and called for a
thorough UN probe into the
crisis, hasteningmoves towards
international sanctions on the
Khartoum Government.

Mr Powell told a US Senate
hearing that evidence compiled
by the United States "concluded
that genocide has been committed
in Darfur and the Government
of Sudan and the
Janjaweed bear responsibility,
and that genocide may still be
occurring".

The Government in Khartoum
has been accused of arming
and backing Arab militias,
known as Janjaweed, that have
rampaged through Sudan's
western Darfur region.

An estimated 50,000 people
have been killed and 1.5 million
displaced in a campaign
against black Africans that started
as an attempt to put down a
rebel uprising.

Mr Powell said the US had
proposed a resolution to the
United Nations Security Council
asking for a "full-blown and
unfettered" investigation to
confirm genocide had been
committed and possibly consider
oil sanctions on Sudan.

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He said he had spoken to
UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan on the matter.

The resolution would
"request a UN investigation
into all violations of international
humanitarian law and
human rights law that have
occurred in Darfur, with a view
to ensuring accountability", Mr
Powell said. But Sudanese
Finance Minister Ahmed Hassan
al-Zubeir denied there was
genocide in Darfur.

"This is just another sort of
pressure brought against the
Government of Sudan by the
United States and Western governments,
the kind of general
political pressure that shows
the US is not a friend of
Sudan," Mr al-Zubeir said.

A spokesman for the rebel
Sudan Liberation Movement,
Abdelhafiz Mustafa Musa, welcomed
the US move. "The
Sudanese Government and its
militia, the Janjaweed, have
continued to kill innocent civilians
in Darfur," he said.